"Don't stop. Don't stop," I chanted as I reached the edge and teetered.
"Come, Harper. Let me drink you up." His fingers slid inside me, massaging that one exquisite spot as his lips sucked my clit.
I came apart, shattering into a million pieces. "Yes!"
He moaned as he licked my pussy, and his fingers fucked me. "You taste so fucking good." He continued his ministrations until a second orgasm hit me, leaving me gasping.
"I want you, Noel." I knew he'd think I just wanted him inside me. And I did. But I wanted more than his dick. I wanted his heart. I wanted his soul. I wanted all of him.
CHAPTERONE
Noel
I looked death in the eye many times. When I joined the military, right after high school, the powers that be identified me as somebody with a special set of skills and a morally ambiguous character.
I was very good at my job in special ops, but that didn't mean I never had to stare into the eyes of an insurgent bent on killing me.
When I discovered I could do the same sort of work, but get paid insane amounts of money to do it, I left the military and started my own mercenary business. No job was too big or too small or off-limits, except for targeting good people.
There were plenty of assholes out there wanting to fuck up other assholes, so my business grew like wildfire. Me and my team were very successful, but that didn't mean I hadn't been on the cusp of death.
Once, I was seconds away from having a noose around my neck. Another time, I was moments away from losing my head, literally. Luckily, my team was so good that they were able to save me from certain death.
I liked living, but I wasn't afraid to die. I'd still be doing mercenary work today if I hadn't lost my best friend Bastion on my last mission in the Congo.
In losing him, my moral ambiguity turned decidedly to the good side. I pivoted the business into providing world-class security to members of government, billionaire business executives, celebrities, and anyone who could afford our fee and wasn't asking us to do anything against the law.
The work was significantly less exciting, but that didn't mean it wasn't still occasionally dangerous. The most common source of danger in the security field was either an assassin or terrorist trying to kill a government official under our protection or stalkers in the case of celebrities.
During my scrapes with death, I was always calm, cool, and collected. The fear of death never unnerved me. I began to believe that my lack of feeling one way or another meant that I was an emotionally dead person, perhaps even a sociopath.
A two-month-old infant proved me completely wrong.
Never in my life had I experienced a challenge so harrowing as dealing with a crying infant. From the moment I held him, he'd been tethered to my heart, making each wail excruciatingly painful.
"I can't do this anymore, Mr. St. Martin." The nanny, who had come highly recommended with over three decades of experience, handed the baby to me.
I gently bounced him as I'd seen mothers do. "You can't leave Ms. Parrish. I know he's a challenge, but he just needs time to settle in." Even I could sympathize with the little guy who had been living with his mother in Mexico one minute and was now in the United States with me.
She shook her head. "All he does is cry. My nerves can't take it anymore."
How is it possible that with 30 years' experience, she didn't have what it took to help my son acclimate to his new home?
Inwardly, I cursed Lupe for putting me and little Guillermo into this position. She could've given me a warning instead of showing up on my doorstep, handing him over, and telling me that I was his father and he needed to live with me.
I hadn't even known she was pregnant, much less I was a father.
"I'll double your salary. Triple it even. Whatever you want or need, it's yours if you stay." I had never felt so desperate in my life. She wasn't the first nanny to find Mo too difficult to care for.
She grabbed her already packed suitcase off the bed and headed out of the room. "I can't do it. He's been changed and fed." She rushed out the door and down the stairs. I followed her to the front door and then watched as she got in her car and made her way down the driveway, leaving me and Mo alone.
Fuck. With four nannies quitting in just a matter of a few weeks, I was losing hope that I'd find someone to care for him. I lifted him up, resting him over my shoulder and patting his back as I took a long loop through the house, hoping to settle him down.
"You want to hear a story?" I asked as I made my way through the kitchen and out to the sunroom. "About a year ago, I decided I wanted to take an early retirement. So, I decided to buy another security company and put its owner as the CEO of Saint Security, giving me more time off." I made a loop through the sunroom and then headed back to the kitchen, continually patting and rubbing his back as he wailed in my ear.
"I sent Archer to Los Angeles to open the west coast office and when I came out to visit, two things happened. One was that I liked Los Angeles. Not that New York isn't great, but you can't beat the weather here. The second thing was we got a contract to provide security for businessmen in Mexico. I decided to take the lead on that because …well, it was Mexico. It's a great place too. Plus, it gave Archer time to settle in as co-CEO."
Leaving the kitchen, I made my way through the dining room. I wasn't sure why I continued to tell the story because Mo was still crying, albeit not quite as forcefully as before.